Monday in Paris - Overwhelming, wandering, streets, buildings and parks

Day 1 in Paris
Our room came with the remains of a previous tenant. The poor moth probably died of starvation.

I was up very early, local time, about 3 am. I had been sleeping for nearly 10 hours and I was excited and hungry. I occupied my time, waiting for it to be a more appropriate time to wake the others by eating a the rest of the mini beigne du caramels I had bought the evening before. I figured out how to get onto the WiFi, started journaling and checked my email. I finally got a little sleepy so I decided to see if I could sleep just a bit more. That's when the storm hit.

Loud cracks of thunder to drown out the road and airport noise. The rain is amazing, it filled the streets with at least an inch of water. I opened our little door/window to let the fresh air in, watch the lightning and rain. We don't get these kind of storms very often in Kirkland, it was a treat. As the storm started to die down I showered since it was getting close to the time I would need to do so to start our day at 8 am. I was still hungry, so I was planning to be down at breakfast by 7 am when it opened. At one point during my shower, SK was moving about in the room, then suddenly the lights went out. I was in the middle of washing my hair so I had the water off and didn't notice right away. As I was rinsing out the shampoo and I could finally open my eyes I saw that it was very dark. As my eyes adjusted I could see a little and I finally noticed that light was coming from the door. I yelled out to SK and asked if he had turned off the lights to the bathroom. He said he didn't think he had, but when he flipped the switches my lights came back on. I finished my shower and proceeded on to the rest of my day. But more adventure would happen before we even left for Paris. As a note, I am aware of the custom in Europe for bathroom use: the shower was not very conducive to relaxing in a warm stream of water. It is designed to be held with your hand. The idea is that you rinse off (get wet), turn off the water and lather up, then rinse off. Repeat if needed. I immediately figured this out upon inspection of the shower the night before. I explained to SK that this is what should be done. We had been told by another friend, AP, who was born in Israel that this was common in Europe. We left our room, making sure we had our key card, and wandered down to see if breakfast was ready yet, and make sure that AM was.

After showering, we headed down to breakfast. It hadn't started yet, in fact the lobby was blocked off by a metal door. We knocked on AM's door on the way back to our room and found her to be just getting up. So we decided to return to the room to finish getting ready. The key card wouldn't work! We went back downstairs to wait for the reception desk to open. Why we didn't think about calling? I don't know. Maybe we were still adjusting to being up at the opposite time of day and our brains weren't caught up. Breakfast was warm mini baguette, warm croissant, warm chocolate pastry, sliced emmental cheese and ham (the French seem to love their ham), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes with some plain yogurt dressing. A coffee machine for fresh cafe au lait or express, and the cafe cappuccino turned out to be more mocha-like. I grabbed a couple packets of soft cheese and a madelaine to take along. I did end up eventually eating the madelaine and one of the cheese packets, the other decided to spread itself across the inside of my backpack.

Monday morning, after these fine adventures, we headed into Paris to see what we could see. Getting into Paris was no problem, we knew where the RER station is and there is only one that stops in Goussainville.

We needed to find our way to the places that had our tour packages so we started for those first. AM had a very handy app that would map out our route, works for any of the transportation systems. Sometimes, though, it will lead us in the wrong direction, or we are interpreting it wrong and head off in the wrong direction. The transportation systems in Paris are amazing. They have surface street buses, a subway system (Metro), the regional train system (RER) and high speed trains. They also have taxis, rickshaws, bicycles for rent everywhere. The system of tunnels that need to be navigated from getting off a train to getting on the next is absolutely confusing. The signs, for the most part, are good, but there seems to be less assurances along the way that you are going in the correct direction.

The French often run through these passages trying to make their next train. There are lots of stairs, few elevators, some escalators, especially for the really long ascents/descents. The tunnels are not spotless, but for the most part they are not terribly abused. We managed to get off our train and have to figure out how to navigate this maze of tunnels to get to our next train, or up to the surface. We did some quick option consideration and then tried to find our way to the next transportation. What a maze! Up and down, twists and turns, it just kept going. Finally we felt the fresh air of the surface and found ourselves on the streets of Paris, overwhelmed by the sights already.

After a flurry of picture taking, we started moving in the direction of our destination, which was supposed to have our 5 zone pass for 5 days so we could use the transportation systems without having to buy extra zones every time we needed to get back to our hotel room. We eventually found that, but only after stopping at each new site and taking many pictures.

We got our passes, but they ended up being for 3 zones. Grrr. We then headed for Hard Rock to pick up our Paris Pass that gets us into everywhere except the Eiffel Tower and includes the hop-on hop-off bus tour and the boat tour.
We then found a need to eat. The food is incredible. We haven't had a bad meal, or snack yet. We stopped at a Starbucks and got some French chai tea. Ok, really it was the same, but you can't get chai tea from most French cafes, restaurants or snack stands (known as brasseries). The cashier was very nice and gave us a card so that if wee buy 10 drinks while in Paris we get one free. So much for rude French people!
We then started wandering around trying to see the sights. The skyline of Paris is unique (to me). The roofs bristle with chimneys. I've seen this before in movies that show the buildings of old Paris and London. They harken back to a time when everyone used fireplaces to warm their homes. The buildings run continuously for blocks, sometimes. Lots of windows, little porches with iron work and hidden inner courtyards. Everywhere I look I am charmed. I don't feel like I am a typical tourist. Most go to places like Paris to see Le Louvre and Le Tour d'Eiffel. I want to see those as well, but I am also taking photos of the typical buildings of Paris, the ironwork, the streets. I find these just as interesting, and somewhat more enjoyable as the crowded famous attractions. We were attracted by a large and ornate building. We walked down alley ways toward it, through renovation work on Nouveau Jardin. The building was the church of St. Eustace.

As we were leaving this area, an older gentlemen stopped, looked me up and down and said "C'est bonne!" I just said "Pardon."

We walked the streets, being pulled in a direction that held something that looked interesting. We walked through an area of the Jardin Tuileries. I of course am trying to capture everything in pictures, while enjoying the sights. At one point I noticed some goats being used as lawn maintenance (keeping the grass and weeds short on the edge of the park. I took a picture, because I like animals and don't get the opportunity to see them up close very often.

At one point a women started scolding me for being a "Typical American woman taking pictures of the poor trapped animals." It was an interesting one-sided conversation. I again said "Pardon." and moved away. As I turned and observed her from a distance she was "baa-ing" at the goats and talking to them. I think I had just encountered someone who needed a few more meds. She eventually turned and jogged off, appearing for all the world to be a normal person out for a morning run, but I suspected this was not really the case.

We wandered through the area of the Musee d'Orsay. It was here we encountered another interesting character. I am busy taking pictures of everything, my eyes are not on the ground, but up looking at the buildings, the shop signs, the people. Suddenly I see a woman and child coming toward me and the woman is reaching down to pick up a large gold ring that she noted on the ground. She holds it out toward me, tries it on to show me it is too big, she insists I take it. I try to tell her to sell it or give it to the police. She insists I take it, she is allergic to metal. The ring has a decent weight to it, but I quickly realized that even though it looks like gold, it can't be. It's about now that the woman and child turn and come back. She asks me for some Euros so she can buy her son a coke and sandwich. I empty my pockets of change (about 2 euros), just because I enjoyed the entertainment of her little scheme. She seems disappointed, but I refuse to giver her any bills (I didn't have any small bills, anyway). As get closer to the Musee d'Orsay I am accosted by several more of these prestidigitators. After that first one, though, I am seeing the whole thing as they bend down and the ring appears from hiding in their palm to their fingertips. I of course just state "Ah, you already got me with that one!" Within the area outside the closed museum (just about everything is closed on Monday) I am accosted by another 4 tricksters. They are all targeting me...not sure why, maybe it's the huge camera around my neck, I am the only one with a backpack, maybe I look like an easy target. As we leave the area to return to the north side of the Seine, I am targeted by one more. I believe 6 times, including the first. We speculated on how we should handle more of these tricksters, SK wanted to buy a dozen and wear them, when the trickster brought the ring up to insist it was ours he would count out the rings on his hands and say, "No, I have all mine, it must be yours." We all laughed.

We then decided to go get a view of the city from on high. MontParnasse Tower is the highest skyscraper, really the only skyscraper, in Paris. Apparently it is not well liked by most Parisiennes. It does stick out from the surrounding charming older and much smaller buildings. It offers an excellent view of Paris from the air, and that includes the Eiffel Tower. I would've loved to time our visit to the 56th floor of this 59 floor building to be in the evening or at night, but almost everything closes up around 6 pm. The view was spectacular. I took many pictures, was able to identify many of the landmarks and we saw some interesting things.

We ended up going to one we saw from the tower next. A cemetery. I am sure there are some famous people buried there, we did see the tombstone of Sartre and his wife. There were some amazing family crypts and mini monuments. Many of the graves dated back to the 1800s, didn't see anything older than than. There were some disturbing things too. One tomb had the picture of a baby that had died at the age of 2. Another had an inscription of several people, the last not including the date of death. The tomb is waiting for her to join her husband who is buried there. We then found our way to the base of the Tour d'Eiffel. It is huge, it is amazing, and it is popular. They only had two of the pillars open for letting sightseers up, one of the elevators was down to the upper level, making the lines even longer than usual. I would love to go up the tower, especially after dark, but I hate standing in lines as it is, and with a city full of sites to see I feel like my time is better spent elsewhere. We took many pictures from close up and far away.

We then proceeded to look for a restaurant that was supposed to be close by that one of SK's coworkers recommended. We didn't find it, but we did find some good food anyway.

We then returned to the base of the Eiffel tower to watch it as it was lit up in preparation for the light show. In my opinion, the Eiffel tower is best viewed at dusk, from below. They light it up from inside, you can see the intricate iron work and beams that make up the structure. And the orange-ish lights contrast with the cerulean sky to an amazing effect. We then proceeded toward home. Coming home that night, after a long day of random exploration, we were tired and ready to collapse satisfied with our accomplishments.

Getting from the airport to the hotel

We then tackled the idea of getting from Charles de Gaul airport to our hotel in Goussainville. This also brought us face to face with the really of being in a foreign country.

It's like they speak, read and write in a foreign language here.

I can read enough to get a rough idea, I can understand a bit too, especially if given time to translate in my head, and if they use simple language and speak slowly. My speech, of course, is heavily accented, I really do try to properly pronounce things, but I know it must be atrocious. We decided to try the RER to the hotel rather than calling for pick up. I regret that decision now, but it was, now looking back, kind of humorous. We found our way to the RER station, taking a train from our terminal to the next. We found the ticket machines, though it took a couple of machines to get one that would accept our credit card, then we tried to fathom the directions on which gate to go through for the train we wanted. The real confusion started then. We had the tickets, but couldn't get it to work. I noted a sign that displayed a ticket saying ti wasn't accepted at the airport depot...but that's the one we had. We finally got the correct ticket to get us from the airport to Paris, then from Paris to Goussainville. There was no direct train. Up to this point I had been pronouncing Goussainville like Goose ane vill, but at the airport they couldn't understand that and it turned out that Guiss ane vill was the accepted pronunciation. More about this later. We figured out which stop to get off the train from the airport into Paris, Gare du Nord. This is a large junction where several RERs can be transferred to and you can transfer to the Metro (subway) or to a train. I believe on the surface you can also catch a surface bus. They have 5 public transportation systems in Paris. We knew which train we needed to Goussainville, but found it difficult to determine which bay we should be at to make sure we were going in the correct direction, north, away from Paris. The display information on the incoming train showing where they will be going next, so that is very helpful, but they never display the station you are at. The permanent schedules displayed can be more helpful there. After much milling about, a little arguing on interpretation we found the correct bay and train. We bought some of our first French food there too. Donuts are called beigne, I got some mini beigne de caramel (filled donut holes) and a friand fromage, a cheese filled square croissant-like bit of heaven. We got on our train, a bit of creative seating to accommodate our luggage. I packed light, but I still brought along a larger bag - room for treasures to bring home! AM suggested one set of seats, but I knew it would end up blocking the way with our luggage. We found a set of facing seats and crammed our luggage in, standing next to the filled seats. For a Sunday afternoon, the train seemed to have quite a few people. We carefully watched for the stations we stopped at, not quite catching what the soft-spoken announcer said. We then had our next surprise. As we approached our station, we prepared ourselves at the doors. The train stopped, the doors did not open. We tried pushing the button, turning the latch, but I guess we had waited too long and the train started off again. At this point we did think it was funny, we knew we could just get off at the next stop and take the next train south. I also was frustrated because I had this huge luggage that had to be lifted off the train and carried anytime we had to navigate steps. We got the door figured out and got off the train at the next stop and then proceeded to figure out how to get to the other side of the tracks to catch the next train south. This required going down stairs, under a tunnel and up more stairs. Oh joy. The next train came soon and we got on staying at the doorway since we were getting off at the next station.

At Goussainvile we managed to yet again figure out the door and got off. We weren't there yet, though. Once we figured out how to get out of the station, we needed to find our way to the hotel. AM kept saying that it was only 10 minutes walk, but in which direction we had to figure out. Lucky for us the station attendant spoke a little English and had a map to help us.

Her map, though, did not show some newer developed areas and her directions got us lost. We were supposed to walk all the way to the end of the street from the station then turn right. We actually needed to turn right before the end of the paved road. At this point we had been up for more than 26 hours with only plane naps, I was very tired and annoyed because I had stated that I did not want to be dragging my luggage through the streets. As long as we had paved sidewalks I had said it would be OK, but we didn't. We walked for more than 10 minutes, came to the end of the road and found we could turn right. We backtracked, discussed the situation. AM offered to scout, but I was not going to wait so we all started off across a dirt path. Not what I wanted to be doing with my luggage. AM was out front and shouted back as she approached the end of the trail that she saw our destination. Good! We still had a ways to go, because the parking lots to businesses are all fenced in you cant walk through them. We skirted the store's lot and found the hotel. crossing to it, though, was a dangerous proposition. We finally managed to get across the busy road with the blind corner and found the hotel completely fenced in. We finally hit an intercom button at the car gate and got someone to open the gate for us. Once inside the hotel we thought our adventures were coming to an end for the day. Wrong. At first the reception desk lady, with pretty good English, said our reservations were cancelled. We were about ready to panic. AM had made reservations through Expedia and they had booked the hotel rooms with her and I together and SK in a room by himself. AM had cancelled those reservations and had them do it the right way. So she kept trying to explain that to the reception lady and she took another look through her pile of papers. She found our reservations and we heaved a collective sigh of relief. Then we had to decide if we wanted the breakfast they served and WiFi. We said yes to both. Our key cards, codes for WiFi access were prepared and we were given instructions on what to do if we came back late, when breakfast was served, what breakfast entailed and how to get to our rooms. I immediately started up the stairs, thinking it's only one flight to the second floor, I wasn't going to trust the elevator, yet. I get to the second floor and it's not ours! They have designated the ground floor as single digit numbered rooms, then what we would call the second floor is the first floor here. I climbed another set of stairs, arriving at about the same time as the adventurous AM and SK in the elevator. We got to our rooms, and as far as I was concerned, I planned to stay until I had gotten at least a few hours of sleep. Mind you, we landed at CDG airport at about 1:30 pm local time (that's about 3:30 am back home). We left Kirkland at about 11:00 am (the second time). While AM and SK had managed to sleep a bit on the planes, I had only nodded off for a few minutes at a time. It was almost 6 pm local time and I was utterly exhausted and starting to get a bit cranky. We walked down a hallway of many doors, found chambre 220 and opened the door.

I smelled the stale odor of cigarette smoke, even though the room was supposed to be smoke-free. Besides that, our hallway sized room, with a small queen and day bed and postage stamp sized shower filled bathroom was home sweet home for the next 6 nights. I almost immediately unpacked my essentials (toothbrush, etc.) found the shirt I brought along to wear as a nightie and collapsed into bed. We had arrived in Paris!

Getting to Paris

The adventure started Saturday. I woke up early, with the excitement everyone gets when they are eager to get something, or start something new. I couldn't get back to sleep , even though I knew that sleeping in would be a good idea. Even though I had to work until Friday, I only had a few more things to add to my packing. SK, on the other hand, took all the way to 1030 to finish, even though he had had the last two days off. We left early, with the idea of getting an early lunch before going to AM's house to park the car and get the ride to SeaTac. Stopped for lunch and arrived just in time. I parked up top to unload, and regretted it immediately. My car is very hard to see out of when backing up, especially when you are trying to do so going down a hill. I backed up the 50 feet, hoping the whole time I wasn't going to damage someones car, fence or other valuable near the drive. Parked the car down below and removed all the important papers, leaving them inside AM's house. Got to the airport plenty early, checked in, and breezed through security. Woohoo. I'm going to Paris! Changed some money into Euros, rate is about 69 right now and searched for a bathroom so I could put on the underwire bra I chose to put in my carryon to avoid that awkward necessity of having a complete stranger grope me under my breasts. We got water for the flight, staying well-hydrated is supposed to help lessen jet lag and watched the runway as planes left Seattle. About an hour before boarding we got a light dinner at one of the restaurants. We didn't know if food would be available or not. We also made sure we had snacks for the flight.

 
Boarding call was chaotic, as usual, but we made it aboard and walked almost all the way to the back of the plane. Behind us were 8 young children and their parents. Does this flight seem to have a lot of kids? There were more scattered throughout the plane. I could tell when the kids had reached their limit of no play, constant noise and lack of sleep. It was especially a bad time for one parent whose child may have had a bit of congestion and the descent seemed to be painful to those of us with hearing. One other feature of this flight was a terribly uncomfortable seat which caused my tailbone to remind me that it was not happy sitting so long. And finally, it was HOT. The air in the cabin was too warm, the air vent could barely be felt. The sun was very bright on my side of the plane contributing to the heat. So I was too hot, on top of not being able to sit back in the seat for more than a few minutes because of the tailbone. I thought the food was tasty, though quite expensive. I stuck with water to drink and ice to try to cool down. The free inflight movies were nice - watched Sherlock Holmes again, a cute animated show about teen Thor, a documentary on Iceland and bits of over things. I tried sleeping, but the heat ad inability to sit up hindered my attempts. Leaning forward and supporting my head on the tray with blankets and a pillow was about as comfortable as I could get, but I couldn't breathe well. Iceland, at least in the area of the Keflavik airport, Reykjavik, is very flat, and a bit desolate brown. There were many beautiful lupines all over the taxi- and run-way borders. The people of Iceland seem to be very friendly. We breezed through customs, they checked my boarding pass, the passport picture against the real face and I am now allowed to travel to any European destination without going through customs again. We actually didn't put that together 'til later. We were supposed to have almost an hour between landing and the next flight, but our plane must of had a bit of a head wind and we had just enough time to relieve our bladders and go to the next gate for boarding. Boarding was handled differently than I have experienced before. They opened the doors and everyone started going through. They checked our boarding pass and passport for the custom's stamp and identity, but they didn't call for parents with children or those needing assistance first. It was first come, first gets on the plane. We were just about at the very back again, in fact same seats, different plane. This time, however, we did not have 8 children behind us. There were still children aboard, but not as many as from Seattle. I again got to experience the rush of takeoff. By this time it was about 2 am by our body clocks, though it was brightly lit and about 8 am. I was really tired. For the shorter flight I tried sleeping. The seat was better, but without additional pillows and blankets it was difficult to prop myself up. I also kept peeking out the window: I saw the Isle of Skye, south Britain - Brighton and the country of France. I was unable to see the cliffs of Dover - it's amazing how the clouds follow the coastlines of land masses. From the air, France is very green. The fields are well defined. The forests are tiny. From the air Kirkland still looks like a forest in my neighborhood. There are enough trees in France to make a neighborhood look like a forest. The forests are bounded by fields and roads. As we got close to Paris, I kept looking out the window to see if I could catch a glimpse of the city from the air. On final approach I did finally see the Eiffel tower, barely. We made a definite landing and all weariness went away. We claimed our baggage, after a delay, but faster than I had expected since we had checked in early and transferred flights in Keflavik.

I experienced a sense of deja vue when we started from the plane toward baggage claim when I realized that the people movers were the same we see in one of my favorite movies, French Kiss. They move fast and I was almost literally swept off my feet. After the first people mover we went up some escalators, then to more people moves through tubes. After getting our baggage we looked for customs, only to discover that going through Iceland is good enough for the entire European Union. No stamp of Paris in my passport?

A journey in reflection

The text to my slide show for my final presentation in my final class for my RN-BSN:

Reflectivity

Is seeing the details
Sometimes the details are endless
Sometimes the details are calm
Sometimes the details are chaotic
Sometimes the details follow a pattern
We are all looking for patterns
Details and patterns matter
Details often make the difference
So does our wellbeing
Look out for yourself
Enjoy the meal
Enjoy the activity
Drink in the details
Take time to notice the colors
See the reflections
Don't forget the bigger picture
Sometimes the path is easy to see
Difficult to get to
Obstacles may be high
Goals may be far away
Let your imagination fly
Find a way that works for you
Reflect on goals and accomplishments
Take time to enjoy the flowers
Take time to enjoy the details.

I'll post pictures later.